Was this the right thing to do?

Most workplaces react to stress by reducing employees’ workloads, responsibilities or working hours and in serious cases by giving people long sick leaves… this is a mistake.

People hit by stress need to increase their capacity and confidence at work, and while time off from work can be necessary to treat the immediate symptoms of stress, a long absence from the workplace does exactly the opposite. When people return to the workplace, they’re even more vulnerable than before. Worse, some never return to work at all.

Instead, suggests the author, I should be working with my school and within myself to fix the things that feel so bad at work, for, as this article stresses, workplace stress is not caused by the work or amount of work, but how one feels about work. So, if you feel bad, you have to make the changes necessary to feel better.

It’s true, though, about feeling less confident and more fragile in some ways now that I’m on leave. As I said in the first post, I feel replaceable.